The Storyteller
by iSpanky
Summary: Master Sasori, tell me a story. She said, basking underneath the evening sun that lazily kissed her face before it left the sky. SasoSaku


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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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The Storyteller

"Master Sasori, tell me a story" she said, basking underneath the evening sun that lazily kissed her face before it left the sky. She sat up from the ground and crawled to him, leaning on his chest and in between his legs, her hands pulling his black and red cloak to cover her bare arms from the cold.

He tilts his head at her voice, "You're too old for stories."

She smiled, "tell me one anyways..."

"Once upon a time," he started, "there was a girl who loved to play games."

"What kind of games?" She asked, her fingers playing with his short crimson hair.

"All kinds." He responded, his fingers on her lips, tracing her mouth, "But the ones she loved the most were the ones that she knew she could win."

Her brow knitted together "Why?"

He smiled and his voice became softer, "Because she didn't like to lose." His fingers raked through her long pink tresses.

"But one day," he continued, "she played with a dangerous man who also liked to play games..."

"Oh, and did she fall in love with him?" she asked hopeful, love stories were her favorites.

He leaned against the boulder behind him, "No, she didn't fall in love with him...He fell in love with her."

"Then it _is_ a love story."

He smiled. It was so like this child to try to make everything a romance. "Perhaps, it is but," he paused, "it's a rather sad one."

"Why?"

"Because he was immortal and she was not." his hands rested upon her hips, fingers smoothing out the creases in her dress and brushing the sand off.

"They fought a lot," he continued, "about the smallest things; once they even fought over a blond haired, blue-eyed boy."

The girls' eyes widened at that, "A boy? Was he her lover? Was the man jealous?"

He closed his eyes, "Maybe he was jealous, but not of the boy."

"oh."

"You see," He explained, "The man had never been loved, never been cared for. His parents died when he was young, and so, he grew up bitter and without a heart. So, when this Girl appeared and fought with him, she told him things that he had long ago forgotten."

"What kinds of things?"

"Hurtful, truthful things," She tilted her head to look at him, His auburn eyes looked into her jade ones and she saw emotion flicker his normally passive eyes; longing, regret, hope, an unbearable sadness.

She noticed that he looked at her more and more now, that he was kinder when she acted like his lover rather than a lost girl with no memories. Not like those first few days when she woke up for the first time ever, not knowing anything and for months he ignored her and was moody and irritated at everything she did.

"The man," he started, "was jealous of her, of the innocence she still held, and of the way she fought for the flaxen haired boy."

"Why?" she questioned.

_'Why'_, he thought, _you would always ask me that..._

"Because," he looked at the sky above, "he had wanted her to feel the same way about him."

"Aww!" she cooed, in a manner that reflected the childish innocence that her green eyes gave.

"So, he took her away, into his castle and kept her there. And every night, she would ask him, 'why?' and he would say, 'Because I want you.'"

He felt the girl in his arms shift and smile into his shirt. "Nights became days and days became two years, and finally, one day, the flaxen-haired boy appeared in front of his castle. He had come to take the girl home, but the man would not allow it.

"In the end the boy and the man fought, and blood spilled and the boy was near death." He could feel her tremble in his arms.

"Is this story too scary for you?" he asked her.

"No," she answered, "please continue."

So he did. "Because the man loved her, he let her see the boy one more time before he died, but he did not let her touch him, for the girl was a healer and could heal the wounds inflicted upon her friend."

That made the girl jerk, "Why wouldn't he let her heal her friend?!"

"The man thought that she would leave with the boy."

"So, it wasn't because he was cruel," she reasoned, "it was because he was scared that she would leave him?"

"Yes."

"And then what happened?"

"She begged him to allow her to heal her dying friend."

"And did he?"

_The boy was covered in blood, dirt and burns. Sasori watched the girl sink down to the sandy floor, gasping for air that wouldn't come to her."Naruto...w-why...?"_

_Accusing green eyes turned to him, "What did you do to him?!" _

_Sasori raised a delicate brow, "I allowed him to live, just for you."_

_"What?"_

_"I shall show you how kind I am," he crouched down to her level and took her chin in his hand and stared straight into her eyes. "I will remove the seals on your body and allow you to generate enough chakra to either heal your friend," he pointed towards the unconscious boy on the floor, a knowing smirk on his face. "Or to kill me."_

_Sakura felt the cold dread grasp and spread all over her chest. He was controlling her chakra with his own, only allowing a small amount to circulate throughout her body, never enough that she could be able to do a simple jutsu without severe consequences. And now he was offering her the chance to kill him or the chance to save her friend._

_"And knowing you, if I decide to kill you, you'll just use your chakra strings to take away whatever chakra I have." she scowled._

_He smiled, "You know me so well."_

_"And you, me." The realization hit her, he already knew that she would chose to save her friend. So why would he...? _

_She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "What do you get out of this?"_

_"A promise."_

_"A promise..?"_

_"That is what I said," he closed his brown-red eyes and sighed, acting as if he were talking to a simple child. "In order for you to help the Jinchūriki, you must promise me something in return."_

_Naruto's breathing was becoming shallower and it seemed that even with Kyuubi's chakra, He wasn't healing fast enough. She was becoming desperate "I'll promise you anything, just release the seal!"_

_He didn't respond, instead there was only empty space where he once stood. She felt warmth on the crook of her neck; he was right behind her. His lips grazed her shoulder slightly and she shivered when he spoke into her skin."Do not move."_

_His hands were under her shirt, massaging between her shoulder blades with his thumbs. He whispered something into her neck that she couldn't quite hear. She felt her back begin to burn whenever he moved his hands and the pain only intensified when he bit his lip and kissed her back. _

_She felt the warm drops of blood slid down her back, scorching her skin. Her back felt as if she were on fire, and it only intensified with every second and till she saw white hot stars dance underneath her closed her eyelids. She drooped to floor; eyes shut closed and passed out from the pain._

_"You will stay with me, here. Forever."Sasori whispered into her ear, softly and viciously at the same time. "You will never leave my side and you will never see another human being ever again."_

_He licked the tears that escaped her eyes and watched as she became conscious and painstakingly gathered chakra into her fingers and began to heal her teammate. _

The memory came to him unbidden, and he felt something he hadn't felt for a long time; Guilt.

"Yes," he continued."But he made her promise something to him; He told her that the only way he would allow her to help her friend was to promise to stay with him forever."

"And did she?" the girl asked.

"She did." He answered.

The girl in his arms sighed in relief, "So he wasn't a bad guy." She smiled and her bright green eyes shone in the darkness of the evening sky.

"Perhaps."

"And that's it?"

"No, like I said he was immortal, but the girl was not."

"Did she die?"

He though it over carefully and the silence clung to him. "Yes... and no." was his answer.

The girl was confused. "How do you die but not?"

"You see, the man devised a plan to make her live forever; he'd decided to make her just like him."

_It had started out well, how did this happen?_

"So they could live together forever," she said, "in the literal meaning of the word."

"Yes," he answered, "and he did make her immortal."

"So, now their all happily ever after, right?" the hope in her eyes crushed him, the guilt doubled.

"No," Sasori buried his nose into her hair and whispered to her. "When he made her just like him, immortal; she had fallen asleep. And when she woke up, she forgot. She had forgotten everything; her name, her life before, the world, Him...He did not expect her memories to fade." He felt her bury her face into his chest and begin to cry.

"But... they did..." he whispered to himself. "Her memories of him were gone, and in the end he was left all alone with only a stranger for company."

She was crying in his arms, shaking her head as if to deny the ending of the girl and the man.

"Why are you crying?" he asked.

"Because..." she whispered into his cloak, "I'm sad."

"Why?"

"It's not fair," she sniffed, "He loved her so much, and she forgot!"

She was sad for the girl; a person she didn't know. Sad for the man; he had wanted someone to love him, forceful or not, he just wanted her by his side. And in the end, she had forgotten about him and her and everything they had.

"Master?" she whispered through tears and simple pains that weren't so simple. "Who was she?"

_She was you._

"She was a beautiful girl with pink hair and bright emerald eyes."

"What was her name?"

And it was so hard for him to say her name, he hadn't used since the day she had forgotten, had seen no reason to give this pale, poor imitation of her a name.

"She shared your name." he hugged her closely as her limbs fell limp and the sound of wood clacking echoed softly. "Her name was Sakura.

The silence in the room was terrible, it only reminded him of how much more empty and alone he was, despite having the girl he loved in his arms.

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A/N: so as you guessed, this is a Sasori/Sakura fic.

um, Yay me?

Uh, Sakura is indeed a puppet, but the way I described her didn't really make it seem that way ( especially since, I'm pretty sure, puppets don't cry...). Forgive me for that.

The original title for this was; "The puppet master and his puppet." But then my friend said 'Omg sexual innuendo! LoL!'

and it seems as if my best friend SOMEHOW DELETED all of my fics, so now I have to find them all and re-post them.

tch, yay me.

Also I've been ignoring my lj for a while and college and stuff, so it will take some time put some of the fics back up.


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